Savoy, Chambéry and the Swiss Confederation
20 May 2022
The Dukes of Burgundy, who does not know them from their heyday (1363-1477)? The last Duke, Charles the Bold (1433-1477), not only lost three battles (Grandson, Murten/Morat (1476) and Nancy (1477), but also his life in 1477 in the war against the Swiss Confederation.
Savoy
Another dynasty in this region, the Duchy of Savoy, is less well known but has played a much longer and more significant political role than the Dukes of Burgundy. The name Savoy is derived from Sapaudia. This term originates from the Gallo-Roman culture of the fourth century.
The dynasty arose during the Second Burgundian Kingdom (888-1032) in an area that, in the fifteenth century and at the beginning of the sixteenth century, stretched from the present departments of Haute-Savoie and Savoie in France, Vaud/Waadt and Bas-Valais/Unterwallis (Lower Valais) in Switzerland to Piedmont, the Aosta Valley and Turin in Italy with Chambéry as the residence and governmental centre until 1563. The Duchy extended its territory to the County of Nice in the 17th century. Turin became the Dukes’ residence and the Duchy’s capital in 1563.
Savoy and its Neighbours
From the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries onwards, the counts and dukes were in almost permanent conflict with the French king, the western cantons of the Confederation or Eidgenossenschaft (especially Bern), the city of Geneva and the seven Zenden (Dizains) of Oberwallis/Haut-Valais.
The bishops in Geneva and Sion/Sitten supported Savoy. The Dukes of Burgundy were Savoy’s “natural” ally in the fifteenth century against the French king, the Eidgenossenschaft, the city of Geneva and Oberwallis.
The defeat of Burgundy in 1476 and 1477 heralded the beginning of the end of Savoy’s presence on the territory of present-day Switzerland. The Confederates (Bern and Freiburg in particular) conquered Vaud in 1536. Oberwallis (Upper-Valais) occupied Unterwallis.
This situation lasted until the French invasion and the establishment of the Helvetic Republic (1798-1803) in 1798. Vaud became a canton in 1803 in a new Confederation (1803-1813). Unterwallis merged with Oberwallis into the French puppet states Valais/Wallis (1802-1810) to become Department Simplon (1810-1813) and canton Valais/Wallis in 1815. Canton Vaud/Waadt became a canton of the new Confederation in 1815.
The Cultural and Political Heritage
Many Swiss castles, monasteries, abbeys and cities bear witness to the presence of the House of Savoy. For example, the Carrés savoyards in Morges, Rolle, Romont, Yverdon-les-Bains, Champvent and the castle of Chillon.
This exceptional dynasty lasted longer than the Austrian Habsburgs. The Habsburg Empire was dissolved in 1918. The descendants of the Counts (1029-1416) and Dukes of Savoy (1416-1713) were kings of Sicily, Sardinia, Savoy and Piedmont, with the title Kings of Piedmont-Sardinia (1713-1860) and Kings of Italy (1860-1946).
On 23 April 1861, after the dissolution of the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia due to the creation of the kingdom of Italy in 1860, the citizens of Savoie voted in a referendum to become part of the French empire of Napoleon III.
Although Savoy can not compete with the splendour and culture of the Burgundian Dukes, the medieval castle, the beautiful Gothic chapel, the monasteries and churches, the cathedral, the city palaces, (medieval) streets in and Chambéry, and the many works of art in the Musée Savoisien give an insight into their rich cultural heritage.
(Source: Thérèse and Jean-Pierre Leguay, La Savoie, Rennes, 2014).